Neuronal activity of two subfunctions of executive control mechanisms – an event-related fMRI study concerning task switching and response inhibition

Background: Executive control mechanisms comprehend manipulation and maintenance of task-relevant information, inhibition of irrelevant information, cognitive flexibility to switch between tasks and simultaneous processing of parallel information to afford goal-oriented action. Aims: To exclusively (i.e. without activation of other cognitive functions) evaluate two subfunctions of executive control, the inhibition of irrelevant information and the task-set reconfiguration. A „set-shifting“-paradigm by Rogers and Monsell separately requires the inhibition of irrelevant information, the switching between two tasks…